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Shuniya: The Point of Stillness—A Lifestyle

By Jivan Joti K. Khalsa, Ph.D.

The Master of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi Bhajan, often talked about a most elevated state of consciousness called Shuniya, where the ego is brought to complete stillness. A power exists there. We do not hassle or try to act. With folded hands of devotion, Infinity acts for us. In that state of “zero,” if we can focus our mental projection on a clear intention, which acknowledges our higher self and the Creator within us, it will be so.

There is no miracle. The mind is infinite when it concentrates the magnetic energy of the psyche. There are only two things: energy and matter. Any composition, permutation of any energy into matter and matter into energy, can be caused by a disciplined mental concentration. That mental concentration is in you, it is not outside. -Yogi Bhajan

Yogi Bhajan’s appointed and trained Master of Sat Nam Rasayan® Healing, Guru Dev Singh, has also spent much time in teaching how to reach Shuniya—the highest state through which healing can occur. As a student and practitioner of Sat Nam Rasayan®, I am developing my ability to hold a state of Shuniya in healing sessions with patients. Funny though, I never realized how I would use the state of Shuniya to heal and live my own life.

In the Sikh Scriptures, the Creator is described as being the biggest trickster imaginable. He/She created the physical world of maya (possessions, our bodies, relationships, and all living things), to which we mortals attach much emphasis, importance, and obsession. We are given challenges, not as a punishment, although karma may be involved, but as an opportunity for growth. I get the image of The Source throwing me a challenge and with a smile and a chuckle saying, “Ok, let’s see how you do with this one.” In other words, it’s not what the event is, it’s how we deal with it. We all have choices. We can react from our emotions and past agendas, or we can respond from a place of consciousness. This is where Shuniya comes in.

I have had a lot of physical challenges. I used to consider them as curses, a punishment of some kind. Through meditation, and recently by practicing Tratakam with the Yogi Bhajan Tratakam Meditation photo (see Aquarian Times, August 2009), I have been able to experience a deeper state of Shuniya. This elevated state is helping me transform my feelings of resentment, shame, grief, and fear—which only contribute to illness—into gratitude, which aids healing. Instead of living in a state of “why me,” Shuniya has helped me acknowledge all the gifts of my physical challenges. They are loving teachers and guides to help me live a more aware, loving, and complete life.

The characteristics of Shuniya are flowing, intuitive, soulful, neutral, sensual, accepting, and allowing. There is no judgment, expectation, opinion, pushing, or intellectualism. It is a pure form of love. In this state of consciousness, the Infinite is in charge and what happens is limitless.

Shuniya is not some fancy esoteric yogic term. Yogi Bhajan was a very practical man, who gave us a useful technology for these modern, stressful times. Through meditation, we can train our minds to respond with a steady consciousness instead of reacting from fluctuating emotions. Through meditation we can reach that still point where we merge with the Infinite and create our own expansive reality. Miracles are nurtured in the soil of Shuniya.

Dr. Jivan Joti Kaur is a KRI certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor and Lead Trainer of Level I and II, a Sat Nam Rasayan® candidate for Level III, and a New Mexico Licensed Marriage and Family Counselor. She has written three books, The Art of Making Sex Sacred, Editions One and Two, and Dying into Life: The Yoga of Death, Loss and Transformation. She can be reached at www.jivanjoti.com and [email protected].